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Star Wars: Rogue One ***

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I am keeping this spoiler free for y’all so not going to say too much.

I will say I was disappointed and there were parts of it that definitely surprised me.

A lot of interesting characters, and tied into the main Star Wars line but different.

It would be my third least favorite Star Wars movie ahead of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.

I do want to say more but I really know people are planning to see it in the next few weeks.

It’s possible that “Rouge One: The Story of Estee Lauder” might be have a better movie.

And I think it might be the 4th new movie I saw this year in the theater, I think I saw Force Awakens ***1/2, Deadpool **, Captain America: Civil War **1/2, Dr. Strange ***, all big money properties from Disney with Marvel and Star Wars. And I did like Dr. Strange more than Rogue One.

It’s going to be fun to have a Star Wars movie every year. I do hope the Han Solo movie is better than this one.

My First Bass Guitar Lesson

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I should have done it way earlier honestly, since I have been borrowing my friends quite heavy 5 string Fender Jazz Bass for a while.

But, it was really great to learn some blues in G and some bass guitar patterns, basic scales, etc.

I really look forward to going again in 2 weeks and my instructor Steve Clarke is an incredible bassist.

Here is one the songs with his Steve Clarke Trio.

The Snake Oil Standard

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I was reading one of my favorite books today, Kurt Vonnegut’s “A Man Without a Country.” And I came upon Chapter 8 which talks about politics and is very similar to this In This Times piece from 2005:

Some of the loudest, most proudly ignorant guessing in the world is going on in Washington today. Our leaders are sick of all the solid information that has been dumped on humanity by research and scholarship and investigative reporting.

They think that the whole country is sick of it, and they want standards, and it isn’t the gold standard. They want to put us back on the snake-oil standard.

To me there is no question that places like Breitbart which is now absolutely part of Trump’s team with Steve Bannon being the future Karl Rove like role of Strategic Advisor. Which is pretty scary for a site which is a favorite of the neo-nazis in the alt-right.

And the Oxford English dictionaries just made the word of the year “Post-Truth”, which is very similar to the “truthiness” Stephen Colbert made fun of in “The Colbert Report.” The amount of absurd falsehoods believed on both the left and the right is astounding right now.

I do hope things get better, but somehow we elected a real estate huckster President of the United States in Donald Trump.

We are on the Snake Oil standard. I hope things get better, more diverse, queerer and weirder. I do think they will.

Red Feed, Blue Feed

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I was thinking last night about doing a blogpost how were are doing 6 months from now.

But, not feeling that ambitious now.

I was just looking at a Wall Street Journal graphic called “Red Feed, Blue Feed”. It is just so entirely different now.

And as someone in the blue feed, I honestly find the red feed bizarre. But, that is true for Fox News too.

I know I have had a few Trump supporters on my Facebook wall that seem to be living in a different world. A lot of which can’t believe he is called racist and sexist. I call it “Trump blinders.” And there are people who believe all the unbelievable things Hillary Clinton has been accused of over the years. We live in interesting times.

I do think Donald Trump will be someone that brings more protest and change, and not neccessarily in a conservative way.

I also see huge tax cuts that are not paid for and larger deficits. And maybe some path for legalization of a lot of undocumented Americans, believe it or not. Also a huge change in the Affordable Care Act. We will find out in about six months.

So it goes

Re-Reading Great Books

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Actually didn’t finish any books this week.

I know the election hit me hard. As you can tell from other posts this week, on Tuesday, and Wednesday.

So I was thinking of the books I have re-read this year.

A bunch of which are great.

Colleen Hoover’s fabulous “Slammed” and “Point of Retreat” which I read a few weeks ago.

Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz’s amazing poetry including my favorite of hers the tales of a virgin working as an editor in the porn industry, “Hot Teen Slut” my favorite book of 2014. ****1/2

And her “The Year of No Mistakes” her last poetry book that shows maturity and that she is getting better. I hope she does more poetry in the future ***1/2

The absolutely amazing graphic novel “Daytripper” by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba that makes you think about how death is part of life. Just astounding and my favorite book of 2012. And that I finally bought myself this year as a present for my mom’s Amazon gift card for my birthday.

The absolutely excellent graphic novel about the challenges of being African American and the blues “BB Wolf and the Three LPs” by JD Arnold. Just excellent. ****

The wonderful “Charlotte’s Web” by EB White, which I have probably read 5 or 6 times. ***1/2

And Jack McCarthy’s amazing “Drunks and Other Poems of Recovery” my favorite book of 2013. Astoundingly good book about alcoholism and recovery. *****

And there are a bunch more chapbooks and such too.

Checked out: “Appetites: A Cookbook” by Anthony Bourdain. Pretty interesting, but I honestly prefer his prose, I adore “Kitchen Confidential”. This is good, I may have to copy a recipe or two. *** pg. 51 of 280

Bought (both haven’t arrived yet): “Splinter Factory” a poetry book by Jeffrey McDaniel which I have heard great things about.
“The New Journalism” a compilation by Tom Wolfe from 1975, out of print and seemed up my alley.

I did read a bit of a bunch of things this week so maybe I will finish a couple books by next week.

The very interesting and diverse “Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas” edited by Rebecca Solnit and Rebecca Snedeker. Fascinating stuff, reading out of order, re-read a few maps and descriptions. I’m probably around half done. Small, small text makes me happy for reading glasses. ***1/2

“Daytripper” again, was a couple of comics in, the graphic novel involves comics where Bras de Oliva Domingos dies at many different parts of his life, there is no way to not tear up at the end. I may just finish this after typing the blog tonight. pg 203 of 249

“Ugly Love” by Colleen Hoover, barely started so far, we’ve only just met the main characters, pg 28 of 456 (large print)

“That Girl” by Colleen Hoover: I really don’t think we needed a third book in the “Slammed” series this repeats the story of “Slammed” from Will’s perspective (the boyfriend who had the “Point of Retreat” (2nd book) perspective), the original is in the girlfriend’s perspective Layken/Lake. I love “Slammed” but this is really the same story. I will finish it but not rushing through it. *** pg 72 of 285

“Moscow 2042” by Vladimir Voinovich: The book is still preparing to move 60 years in the future from 1982 to 2042, seems like a fascinating book if a big one, pg 46 of 424. Lots of themes going on here. ***1/2

“Voices of Bipolar Disorder”: The first part talking about the play is unneeded, some really good stuff in this compilation of stories, definitely not a fast read but interesting. As someone with bipolar disorder I will always be reading books like this and I am very happy to be mostly sane. I am likely to finish this this week. pg 131 of 175 ***

“King Dork” by Frank Portman: There is a reason I am not getting far with this book, it’s just not that interesting. More should be happening by page 94 of 344, this will probably be returned to the library next week unfinished. **

“Full Catastrophe Living” by Jon Kabat-Zinn: I read a chapter or so like 25 pages in the first third. A day working in silence appeals to me. I’m very interesting in learning more about mindfulness-based stress reduction. I probably should start this from the beginning.

“The Kingdom of Speech” by Tom Wolfe: Fascinating so far, but more about Darwin then speech so far. Good read at page 68 of 169 ***

So reading a little bit of a lot this week, but I don’t think I made a whole lot of progress on a bunch of these from the post a week and two weeks ago.

Read on!

p.s. After the fact I did finish “Daytripper”, I should read it in one sitting again. Lenny thinks it’s time for kitties on the desk not a keyboard.